Conventionally, an attesting photograph is attached to an identification card in order to identify a person. Generally, various restrictions are imposed on this attesting photograph because it should be strictly handled. For example, the size is designated and a front photograph without any hat or cap is required and so on. These restrictions are different depending on a kind of the attesting photograph. Specially, the designated sizes are different in every kind depending on its use or convenience.
For example, the size of length and breadth of the attesting photograph of a driving license of motor car is relatively small, whereas the size of length and breadth of the attesting photograph of passport is relatively large. Further, the size of length and breath of the attesting photograph of passport is different in every country depending on administrative or historical circumstances of each country. In the meantime, there was a video printer system for printing the attesting photograph attached to the identification card. Such a video printer system comprises, for example, a video camera, a video printer and a controller for controlling them. This video printer system is systematized for purpose of the attesting photograph and installed fixedly in a booth. The color printer used in such a video camera system is being replaced with a maintenance-free sublimation type printer instead of a silver salt printer using chemicals so that there may be no need to check frequently for maintenance because it is installed fixedly in the booth.
Premising these background, the video printer for printing various kinds of attesting photographs has been in a situation that an individually different setting is reluctantly performed depending on their specifications. In other words, it is impossible for a single video printer to perform all settings for every specification and so there has been no such a video printer to date.
Therefore, makers who systemize the above-mentioned video printer system for the attesting photograph's use is accustomed to choose the printer in accordance with a specification required by a user. Furthermore, in particular, they used to alter the setting of an existing printer to prepare a custom-made equipment, if necessary.
The existing printer has a print size based on a unique print format. However, since the print format has no degree of freedom, it was difficult to obtain a print output of an arbitrary print size. Typically, various functions possessed by each printer, for example, a screen dividing function was utilized to obtain the print output of the respective required print sizes.
However, with the conventional printer, the print output of a specific print size that is predetermined by the screen dividing function can be obtained, by the print output of an arbitrary print size cannot be obtained even by the screen dividing function. Accordingly, the conventional printer cannot by adapted for the aforesaid print size of the attesting photograph and so there has been a particular inconvenience that it cannot deal with the print size of the attesting photograph of the passport in every country.
Moreover, it is conceivable to perform a processing of expansion or reduction of a picture in the video printer so as to expand or reduce the picture size. However, in the expanding process, other data is added to true data by an interpolation processing. In the reducing process, the true data is decimated for processing. Particularly, in a field of the attesting photograph for use with the passport or the driving license, it is inhibited to process freely the true data or to process a picture at discretion by a government of each country because the reliability of the data is lost. That is to say, there has been an inconvenience that the processing of the picture at discretion inside the printer for the arbitrary size should not be performed.
A monitor used in such a video camera system is usually positioned so that horizontal sides may be longer than vertical sides. A on-screen display which is displayed on the monitor at this time, connected with control for operating the color print is accustomed to e displayed in the horizontal direction correspondingly to this position of the monitor.
In this manner, the conventional video camera system is arranged so that the on-screen display for operation the printer may correspond to only the scanning line direction of the monitor with the long horizontal sides (horizontally elongated). However, in the field of the attesting photograph, those of vertically elongated size are often required. Accordingly, it is a practice that a picture which is rotated by 90° in advance and then the vertically elongated picture is displayed on the monitor by rotating the monitor backward by 90°. However in this case, since the on-screen display is displayed in the scanning line direction, namely the vertical direction of the monitor, an operator is forced to turn his face horizontally. Thus, the on-screen display is hard for the operator to read, so that there has been inconvenience that he cannot operate the color printer smoothly.
Moreover, it is conceivable to provide a new controller used exclusively for controlling the operation of the color printer, which controller controls to rotate the on-screen display so that it may be displayed in a direction perpendicular to the scanning line direction, namely the vertical direction of the monitor. However, this leads to an extension of the control system, thereby causing inconvenience that the configuration and the control thereof are reduced complex.